So I heard this morning as I was just coming back from my first break, "Someone shot himself in the Casino!" I heard it from my co-worker who is a cocktail waitress about 10:30 or so. Then some other dealers attempted to head over to the new hotel section, and it was blocked off.

As more details came out I found out that I knew of the guy that did it. He is a pretty well off local business man. A very likable guy that everyone knows that works here because he is a "highroller." I was just pretty much numb today after hearing the news and remembering my dealings with this person. I have been working straight poker for the last 2.4 years or so and I haven't had to pay off any of his markers, but he still made a very strong impression.

The truth be told knowing the "dirt" the whole thing is a mess. Although he is a married man with small kids he was having an affair with a blackjack dealer in this place for the last 4 years. She left her husband for him and for probaly financial reasons he couldn't leave his wife. So after a while I imagine a woman can become impatient with being the "other woman."

I guess they were sitting out on a bench in the main hallway this morning by the current car this place gives away. From what I hear she was going to break it off. Well things most probaly came to a head this morning as when he was sitting at her BJ table. Apparently they were arguing and creating a big scene, that's when he pulled out the gun and shot himself.The shreik of his girlfriend could almost make time stand still from what I heard. I knew at least one person that was a witness to this horrible event. It's pretty bad from what i hear. The people immediately involved were taken to some kind of counseling.

He didn't shoot himself in the head but in the heart. He was taken to Niagara Memorial and later passed away.

All I can say is it just makes me look long and hard at what kind of environment I find myself working in. I guess 3 out of 4 of the basic elements of sex. drugs, lies and money were at play here.

I do appreciate the couple of text messges and phone calls of which I could not answer when all of this was on 2,4 and 7. The crazy part was the local media was in attendance for some other press conference.

What a day.

Lately I have noticed that I'm at the high end of my weight range 185. While at the same time it seems that I'm now a 32 in pants size since everything that I am own is is 34 and is just falling off my ass. I'm just thinking I need to do something and the weather still is not favorable to inlineskating. While at the same time I want to drop 10 and just flat abs. I'm not looking for "ROCKHARD" I just want lean and toned.

So what do I do to burn some calories? I decide it is a good idea on a cloudy dreary day to clean out my car. Needless to say the salt cake on the floor mats was a major catalist in this exercise. Unfortunantly while vacuming I realized that the machine suddenly turned off as I adjusted the door I somehow wedged the attachment I was using pretty close to the hinge, Great... I feel like fool. I can feel a slight bump on the bottom of the door. I guess the less on is all of this is just pay the $ and have someone else detail it for you :-/

In the mean time I think I'm just going to skip the breakfast line at work and just have 2 single serving bowls of Honey Nut Cherrios @ 220 caloires combines for the month of April.

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On another note I had a really long overdue conversation with my Ex-Girlfriend last night. Basically I told her that it most likley was not a good idea for us to ever get back together again. In reality we have been broken-up almost two months before I ever started an (e:strip) blog! Yes, we did get intimate on more than a few occasions over the past year and a half but, you just don't expect to hear regret on the part of the person that dumped you.

To be honest I've for the most part moved on and the relationship with her was tarnished by the closeness of it to my abortion of a marriage. It's just that having someone that would "watch you die" like the song "What Sara Said" by D.C.F.C. is hard to totally walk away from. She is the polar opposite compared to my Ex-Wife. My Ex-Wife is so bad that she pretty much has made me swear off all Polish women (No offense, (e:imk2) I'm 100% Polish) So yeah, I got that line of thought revisted last night and it has been quite a while.

In closing it was been a weird 36 hours. Especially since I almost lost this post 3 times due to technical failures on my end. It's just that's another post that may be fueled by the funds that I fianlly recieved from my State Refund after 2 months...

I did end up going outlast night to see the Jackdaw show over at Mohawk Pl. It was the first time that I have even been in that place for a show and not a Transmission Dance Party. It was a nice crowd especially (e:dragonlady7) 's NCKO friends. Having a break away from junior trendy hipsters in training was nice change. I ended up running into a couple of people that come into work and play cards when I was at the show, which was weird. You expect to hear about the $350,000 bad beat jackpot being won by somene you work with not a player in a bar during a jackdaw show. I guess it was 4 of a kind 8's being beat by a 4 of a kind 10's. The loser with the 4 8's won 150,000 the winner of the hand 4 of a kind 10's got 87,500 and the other 8 people at the table that were just sitting around playing recieved 10,900. SO hopefully it will be a good night at work when I go in tonight in 2 hours or so.

Other than that I stopped by Diablo and check out was left on the wall by a boy from my Hood

So in all it was a good night, nothing really too crazy except for the Jackdaw Karma ;-)

Now I'm off to work a grave shift and deal with the hardcore degenerates on a Saturday Night...

So after messing around last night with my Dad over in Canada I ended up heading over to Transmission @ Mohawk with (e:carolinian) . It was a pretty descent night although it did start off pretty slow. WTF were they thinking in playing the Spice Girls??? It was just great to run into my friends Deb from Roch, Marv & Nick.

So after it ended we ended up checking out the other new bar on Allen. It was previously knows as the Jupiter Room but my circle of friends refered to it as the STUPIDiter Room for some reason. It currently has no name at the moment. All I can say is I won't ever go back there again. For starters Allen does not need another "Smoke-easy" I just hate cigarette smoke. That is why I don't go to the Pink as much just for that reason alone. Second the music just sucked in the place, it was just mindless Pop. Third, the drink prices were a bit high. To me it just seemd that the guys that run the place are trying to get some kind of "chip strip" ambiance to Allen and I just don't get it or they just don't get it. The low point of the night was me making some wrong selection on the Sex portion of the Trivia Wiz 3000 machine that we resorted to entertain ourselves in this lame joint.

Other than that our little group hit Jims and for some reason the Philly hit the spot for me. I don't know why I love that sub so much from that place, but I'll take it over the Steak & Cheese everytime. The highlight of the post night was when we realized that they had the Grateful Dead blaring in Jims @ 4:30 in the AM. I know it's Allen st but it actually did have a subliminal "calming" effect of the crowd of some tough mean looking people most likley making their way back from the Chip Strip.

On my way out from (e:carolinian) 's place this morning I was almost felt as if I was in some kind of horror movie trap. I closed the door from the stairs from his upper and was subsequently locked as the front door requires a key to exit. So although I did feel like a creep I did knock on his landlady's door as I heard that they wre up and a young woman answered and let me out.

Know i just have to finish up on some auditing stuff and go to work for a short shift. It never fails when I go out in Buffalo, someone calls into work and I have to fill in for a few hours....

I think I have my mojo back. I'm pretty convinced that this spring thaw has kicked my libido back into gear. I was pretty worried there for a bit.

Now I try to hope to catch a break or make a move in my life.

It really sucks that I'm stuck working a midnight shift on Saturday night, there's a Transmission party @ Mohawk :-(

Other than that I just cashed a ticket for a race at a New Jersey Track tonight. A player at work gave me a tip about this horse and I ened up betting him for about 1/2 of a days takehome pay.

I didn't watch the race, but I ended up checking the results online and was pleasantly surprised!

So I'm slaving away at work tonight and while I am enjoying the internat access on my break they installed the barracuda networks firewall. It denies access to myspace and livejournal as "chat," but I'm able to get onto (e:strip)!!!!

I wonder how long it will last?

With all of the congestion going on with hosting part of the biggest sporting event in the nation, I looked like a supergenius to my friends from D.C. yesterday. As reported in the local media 18,000 visitors looking for somewhere to eat downtown to get in and out without reservations in 90 minutes was just not happening.

Then I had a plan of which to bypass all of this mayhem. I took my group with 5 minutes left in the Butler/Old Dominion game on the Metro Trolly. We stayed on until the Allen exit and walked 2 blocks down to K.Gallaghers. Much to our surprise the place was empty @ 5PM. We were just happy to get a place where we could get a beer, fast service and descent food. Unlike their suggestions to follow what the Buf/Niag partnership placed in their ticket package we stayed far away from the Pearl St. Brewery. As we were standing in a Japanese style subway metro train car on the way back to the arena I pointed to my friends from D.C. and displayed to them the chaos of people still 25 deep on the sidewalk outside of that place. The best part was the Allen St. stop was the last place where you could actually board the train. The cars were packed to capacity, there was no getting on @ the theatre district or Lafayette Sq.

Needless to say I was happy that Duke lost much to (e:carolinian) disppointment...

More on Duke later and the tournament later. I hve to meet my group and watch NU play KU.

I'm sorry but I just can't make it to St. Matty's Day :-/ since my out of town visitors from D.C. are here...

So we won that "play-in" game last night. I was just happy that the ended up winning, I just don't know how I would have reacted if they would have lost to a sleep deprived team. For the most part I'm guessing most of Western New York watched that Sabres game. Although I did contemplate going out for the game last nigth I just was supersitious. There is a new sports bar open across the street here in the Crown Plaza and from what I heard it's pretty nice and they would have had specials last night since it was during a Sabres game. Then I realized that back when my friend worked there and I would hang @ the bar NU would always lose. So I decided to just stay home and watch it on TV.

Now I am just like a kid in a Candy store for the real tournament. I ust can't wait to get up in the morning and head down to the HSBC for the Noon tip off. This is just going to be a days of fun strung together.

Now if NU can only do the improbable and be the first 16 seed to beat a #1 seed...

So I guess my gut feeling last week was right on about this time around not feeling as good as the last time. Niagara was totally disrecpected by being placed in the "Play-In" game tomorrow night in Dayton. I loved the reaction on Jim Rome this afternoon when he was paraphrasing NU, "I thought we got into the Tournament!" Yea, if I had a bookie I think I'd lay the -9 points and cash. They're quite pissed and I do feel sorry for Florida A&M, they're going to get crushed. Then likewise on Friday we're going to get crushed by Kansas in Chicago. I really do like Jerry Sullivan's analysis on the whole thing in his article today. Although all of this happened I think it may have made my year to actually hear Jim Rome 1. Talk about NU on his radio show and Rome is Burning on Espn and 2. To actually agree with the school that they got hosed.

I'll be watching that game tommorrow instead of the Sabres game for sure. I'm just really interested in what the ESPN crew is going to say in regards to the whole seeding fiasco.

On another front I'm feeling like uncut and writing a few blogs in my head that for some reason I just can't find time to punch out on a keyboard. I'm on break right now @ work. The only way I can justify working this much overtime this week is 1. I am going to spend quite a bit of cash this week during NCAA week 2. It's spring break so no class 3. After the week long tournament events it's quite dead.

So back to this whole blog in draft mode concept that has been on my mind. It can be basically summed up is I'm trying to find a common reason on why people on (e:strip) have really shitty luck in love. With such a diverse group of people pinning it to a single reason is a challenge. Not to be slip into the ether of visions of equations of life being revealed in a dream, but it's a really nasty linear regression problem in a way. What common variable can be blamed for all of us being in the same similar collective lonely boat?

Hard to believe that 2 years ago I was down @ the HSBC arena watching my Niagara U. Purple Eagles clinch their first NCAA appearance in 35 years. An event that I would never thought that I would have witnessed in my lifetime. The best part of it was I saw it live and in person. I guess the only sporting analogy would have been being a Ranger fan in '94 or a Red Sox fan in '04.

SO here I am on campus watching it with a bunch of other much younger students. Yea I'm pretty much gramps at this point but just being here to watch it almost feels like a duty. I remember the program when it was a doormat, I also remember the first time when I watched them play a NCAA Conference Championship Game back in '93 and getting screwed with a team that may hve won a game in the first round. It's just that I just don't have a good feeling with them being on the road. Pretty much 2/3rds of Siena is in Bridgeport, then agin they say it's only a 2 hour bus trip.

Then I'm thinking about this concept: "Has the sucess over the past 8-9 years spoiled the loyal fans or at least ME? What would I do if something happened and we were back to winning single digit games again? This year I really was a bit lathergic in my support. I guess being a bit removed from the whole student dynamic makes a bit of a difference. I shold be in the reserved seats as a season ticket holder, and not with the student section.

I remember 2 years ago when I caught the NCAA tournament game against Oklahoma. I watched it at the Sarasota Brewing Co. a place that had Directv and plenty of beer. I spent the whole day and the best part was I remember sitting at the bar and this guy came into the place. The bartender asked if he wanted to see any particular game and he said, "Yes, it's on right here" the game I was watching. He was a high school teamate of Brooks a senior starter. It was quite an interesting 2 hours as I was updating my buddy down in Virginia while he was teaching a class. They should have won that game, but that's another story...

Meanwhile Ch 7 is here with a camera. Julie Fine is here and she just doesn't look anything like I would have imagined her to be in person. He's about 5' in heels and wearing jeans and a sweater and blends in like one of the students.

EDIT: It was much sweeter this time with the "down to the wire" drama!!!!!

NCAA TOURNAMENT BABY!!!!!!